Somebody on LTT requested some current status shots. It's not pretty and mostly disassembled, but since I've shot and
uploaded the pics I thought I might as well post them here, too. Yes, things are slightly messy ATM.

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I'm currently painting the fans. Should have an update on that either Sunday or Monday, if all goes to plan.

I hung the frames on a thread (still had to rearrange them to cover all the angles).

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The masking took about two and a half hours for all fans...

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...because I had the genius idea to paint them both front and back, even though
nobody will ever see the back side again, ever. But the perfectionist inside me
just wouldn't shut up. You can also see that I desoldered the wires. Considering
how close together the contacts are on the PCB that's going to be a bitch to solder
back on. Ah well...

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First coat of copper paint applied. The paint I'm using is Weicon Copper Spray.
The copper colour comes from actual copper particles (so, it's a metal spray, not
just something that looks like copper). The upside: It's copper! The downside:
It's conductive (most likely, I don't have a multimeter to test this, but I doubt
the epoxy matrix in which the copper particles are embedded serves as a good
enough insulator to make it non-conductive).

I found the paint on eBay, if you google "Weicon copper paint" you should be able
to find more info on it.

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Aaand we're done. To be perfectly honest, the paint job could be improved upon.
But considering I don't have a spray booth and practically all imperfections are
well hidden when they're mounted I'm still very happy with the results. I'll
definitely change my procedure though if I ever do this again. It's a learning
process.

Also, to prevent the paint from tarnishing, I gave all the painted parts a clear
coat for protection.

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And now, some glory shots:

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Well, at least the masking did its job.

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I also painted the hex bolts for mounting the fans. They also have a clear coat.